As an era ended at UBS Securities, colleagues held parties for the soon-to-be-retired chairman, CEO and 27-year-veteran of the firm, Jim Estey.
Naturally, they had to roast a fellow who started in the business as a “paper hanger” - that's selling commercial paper - at A.E. Ames & Co. in 1975 before moving in 1980 to the equity sales desk at what was then Alfred Bunting & Co., which eventually morphed into UBS Securities. The Swiss parent bought out the local partners in 2006.
Colleagues had to joke that with Mr. Estey heading for board positions and non-profit work, there would be no more discussions of the virtues of Saskatchewan, the boss's home turf, and no one to point out that “easy jobs don't pay much.”
But there was also tributes to an executive with an unerring sense of markets, and a big heart, who turned a small-employee-owned partnership into a vibrant arm of a one of the world's largest investment banks.
Mr. Estey steps down on July 1 a leading player in a generation that linked Bay Street to global capital markets. He will be missed at UBS Securities, and by his many clients and friends.
